Buy it... if you have enough patience to explore the hidden
highlights of a sadly understated romantic atmosphere, up to twenty
minutes of heartbreaking material begging to be condensed into a shorter
presentation.

Avoid it... if you expect your supernatural fantasy romance scores
of orchestral and choral constructs to appropriately reach out and
demand your attention, long passages in this score barely warm enough to
sustain interest.

EDITORIAL REVIEW

FILMTRACKS TRAFFIC RANK: #1,446

WRITTEN
3/30/14

BUY IT

Zimmer

Winter's Tale: (Hans Zimmer/Rupert
Gregson-Williams) Sometimes movies just don't work. All the best
intentions of novice director Akiva Goldsman could not salvage the 2014
fantasy romance Winter's Tale from the misery of irrelevance
despite its alluring concept and intriguing cast. The massive financial
disaster failed to bring the magic of Mark Helprin's 1983 novel to a
coherent existence on film, audiences confused and critics annoyed by
the fairy tale story that bridges generations of New York City in a
twisted Shakespearian-style tragedy involving demons, poison, fate,
redemption, and lost love. The budget for the film was slashed by 20% as
production progressed, but this possible admission of failure prior to
completion did not stop Winter's Tale from receiving a score
supplied by the realm of Hans Zimmer, including a fair amount of
involvement by the composer himself. While the music for Winter's
Tale, aside from a pop song written and performed by Scottish star
KT Tunstall independently, was the toil of four composers at Zimmer's
prodigious Remote Control score factory, primary credit for the work is
split evenly between Zimmer and Rupert Gregson-Williams, the latter
mired in a series of unremarkable children's and comedy assignments in
his solo career. This type of composing arrangement for magical or
whimsical sidetracks in Zimmer's career has been a somewhat regular
diversion, with music on the children's end of the equation (Lauras
Stern and The Little Polar Bear 2) representing some of
Zimmer's most engaging credits of the 2000's. While debate inevitably
turns to the ratio of contribution between Zimmer and Gregson-Williams
for a work like Winter's Tale, some reports have indicated that
Zimmer was indeed involved in a substantial amount of the music while
others have insisted that Gregson-Williams was stuck with the workman's
load of less preferable duties on the project. Regardless of the
attributions, Zimmer discussed the film as one of his own in interviews,
claiming that Winter's Tale represented an opportunity to return
to "proper" scoring procedures. No matter how he tackled the film, it
has to mentioned that this score garnered remarkably little public
interest from the media hype machine surrounding Zimmer, the music
slipping under the radar with relatively uncharacteristic media
silence.

Perhaps some of the lack of interest in Winter's
Tale from the hype machine was due to the film's destiny as a
failure, though it's difficult not to return to Zimmer's mentioning of
the "proper" methodology he employed for this project. While on the
surface, he may have been mentioning themes and orchestrations, there's
also the more important issue of basic scoring procedure at issue here.
Unlike the usual Zimmer score of this era, for which the composer writes
a suite of thematic and stylistic ideas and his army of ghostwriters
applies that intention to the film, all indications are that Winter's
Tale was actually scored to the individual scenes in the film, the
most common and effective (i.e. "proper") way to address the details of
a story's musical needs. The marketing downside of the "proper"
approach, however, is that Zimmer and his media relations team have
fewer assets with which to milk the score. While traditional film score
fans may celebrate this instance of capitulation to norms, the end
result of Zimmer and Gregson-Williams' efforts oddly misses the
narrative mark. Even among Zimmer's most ardent supporters, Winter's
Tale has receive muted praise, most listeners discontent with the
restraint exercised by the composers in what was a supernatural love
story deserving of an outwardly romantic fantasy score akin to James
Newton Howard's immensely effective Lady in the Water. All the
same elements are employed in Winter's Tale, though the choral
presence is limited to just a few cues. The nicely rounded orchestra is
led by a softly layered piano, strings the most prominent feature
otherwise. Largely monothematic is Winter's Tale, the same love
theme literally opening and closing the score and meandering through
countless interpretations in between. One of the ironies of this score
is the common listener complaint that the themes don't enunciate
themselves clearly enough for satisfaction. While that concern may be
grounded solidly in terms of orchestration and emotional depth, there is
no question that the main theme of the work is consistently stated. The
piano identity's main phrase is the first and last thing to be heard in
"Look Closely," with more cohesive development following in "Can You
Hear Your Heart?" and "She Was Like a Bright Light" before the idea
matures for the fullest ensemble performances in "Becoming Stars." The
pastoral quality of the theme's first two phrases assists it in
transcending the story's lengthy timeline.

There is nothing wrong with the construct of the main
theme in Winter's Tale. Issues arise when analyzing how the theme
is applied to particularly the first half of the love story, as well as
a sense of incomplete realization of depth when the idea is stated. In
other words, there is not enough gravity of romance to the theme's
performances to anchor a story of this supernatural appeal. Another
element of dissatisfaction results from the fact that the theme's
secondary phrase is simply much more attractive that the preceding
stanzas. Heard in the fullest form at 3:05 into "Can You Hear Your
Heart?," this passage loses the heartbreaking piano melody of that
phrase in subsequent returns by the composers to that idea, only the
underlying progressions allowed reprises the ends of "Light as a
Feather" and "Becoming Stars." The bulk of the romance material in
Winter's Tale is similarly underplayed and somewhat anonymous,
and the composers fortunately are afforded some opportunities to heavy
the load at times with great dramatic flair in the suspense and action
realms. In "It's the Ripple That Give the Work Meaning" and "You Don't
Quit Me, Boy," shades of Zimmer's brooding electronic mixes dominate,
and these tones merge effectively with the romantic side of the score in
"I Love Blood on the Snow" (a distinctly James Horner-like cue of
panic). For enthusiasts of Zimmer's vintage expressions of over-wrought,
weighty ensemble romance, the duo of "The Girl with the Red Hair" and
"Becoming Stars" add muscular tonal sequences of ripping snare and
blaring brass that are highlights of the work. There exist moments in
the score that will remind listeners of very specific moments in prior
Zimmer entries as well, sometimes to a humorous degree. One such moment
is a burst reminiscent of Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron for a
notable scene involving the horse in this film. Overall, Winter's
Tale is better than most listeners have given it credit for,
featuring enough four-star highlights to justify a twenty-minute
collection of highly worthy genre entertainment. The mass of the score
slides back to average territory due to the composers' seeming
unwillingness to wear the drama of this story on their sleeve and let
the emotional tone of the music play the kind of dominant role in the
film that is necessary, especially during cues such as "Hello You
Beauty" and "Princess Bed." The instrumentation and thematic constructs
were there to make a winner, and the lack of their application into a
truly congealed, obvious narrative arc will bother some film music
collectors. But Winter's Tale will reward you upon further
examination and beg for rearrangement into a condensed presentation. ***@Amazon.com: CD or
Download

Bias Check:

For Hans Zimmer reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.94
(in 96 reviews)and the average viewer rating is 2.97
(in 273,886 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.